Article excerpt

IN the dirt yard of a primary school here on Saturday, civil
servant Alhaji Ahmed J. Bawa helped Nigeria take another big step
from military rule toward democracy - by standing still.

Following Nigeria's unusual, military-directed system of voting,
Mr. Bawa and millions of other Nigerians lined up behind posters of
their candidates to be openly counted in an election for the new
National Assembly.

Official results showed yesterday that the liberal Social
Democratic Party (SDP) had gained control of the house of
representatives and was near a majority in the senate, but the
election may have been more significant because political parties
appealed to voters across religious, regional, and tribal
boundaries.

It is uncertain what the parliament can do until the military
hands over power, as promised, in January. Meanwhile the country
will hold one more election, for president, on Dec. 5; primaries
for the race begin in August.

Judging by returns from the National Assembly vote, in which the
country's two political parties carried constituencies in most
regions, the two presidential candidates will also have to make
national appeals.

In the past, voting in Nigeria has often been a question of
north against south, Muslim against Christian, one major tribe
against the other, says Tonnie Iredia, a senior federal election
official. Such divisions, magnified during heated and sometimes
violent elections, tended to pull Nigeria apart. But the old voting
trends "have been broken by the new political system," says Mr.
Iredia, of the government-appointed National Election Commission.

The new pattern is one of "liberalism vs. conservatives," says
Omo Omoruyi, director general of the Center for Democratic Studies,
a government agency based in the new Nigerian capital, Abuja.

With only two parties in Nigeria at present - the limit set by
Nigerian head of state Gen. Ibrahim Babangida - each party is
forced to campaign for votes all over the country, regardless of
religion and tribe. The SDP won control of the 593-member house and
needed only two more seats to dominate the 91-seat senate, official
results said.

According to another civil servant in Abuja, "everyone is
struggling to get your vote. They {the candidates} forgot about
religion," he said, asking not to be named.

The new voting pattern does not mean, however, that Nigeria has
overcome tribal and religious differences, says Mohammed Abdulrahi,
a businessman in Abuja, about an hour's drive from this town. "We
still look at politics as do or die," he says.

Saturday's election was peaceful. But some candidates or
officials chosen in previous elections during the transition have
been attacked or threatened. Elections have been held for local and
state government, including governorships.

The military has yet to define its relationship to the newly
elected National Assembly. …